You Get What You Get

     A kindergartener once told me, “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.”   It reminded me of a poem I had to memorize and present in the 8^th grade by Pricilla Leonard:

Happiness is Like a Crystal

Fair and exquisite and clear,

Broken in a million pieces,

Shattered, scattered far and near.

Now and then along life’s pathway,

Lo! Some shining fragments fall;

But there are so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

You may find a bit of beauty,

Or an honest share of wealth,

While another just beside you

Gathers honor, love or health.

Vain to choose or grasp unduly,

Broken is the perfect ball;

And there are so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

Yet the wise as on they journey

Treasure every fragment clear,

Fit them as they may together,

Imagining the shattered sphere

Learning ever to be thankful,

Though their share of it is small;

For it has so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

     Through the years, I have always kept this poem.  It reminded me to stop worrying about what I don’t have and enjoy what I do have.  Sometimes in the name of progress, I focus on all the things I need to get to be happy.   But as Sheryl Crow sings “it is not having what you want.   It’s wanting what you’ve got.”  The older I get, the more how right the kindergartener, Pricilla and Sheryl are.